The San Francisco International film Festival has been chosen as an Academy-Award qualifying festival in the Documentary Short Subject category. Now we have three shorts categories as Academy Award qualifiers – Narrative, Doc and Animation.
Short documentaries of
I totally dig that the San Francisco Film Society does these “State Of Cinema” Addresses. Jonathon Lethem, Kevin Kelly, Tilda Swinton. CHRISTINE VACHON.
Who will it be this year? Some of you
Sundance Institute Artist Services Program Expands Self-Distribution Opportunities
to Filmmakers Supported by Six Additional Organizations
The Bertha Foundation │ BRITDOC │ Cinereach │ Film Independent Independent Filmmaker Project │ San Francisco Film Society
Artist Services Announces Collaboration with REELHOUSE, VHX, VIMEO and TUGG, Offering Filmmakers Additional Platforms and Tools
Los Angeles, CA — Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, today announced that the Institute’s Artist Services program – which provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work – has expanded to include selected films supported by one foundation and five nonprofit organizations. Additionally, these organizations will join with Sundance Institute in continuing to shape the program and the services it offers.
Last year, the film that the San Francisco Film Society had supported with grants went on to great things. Sure prizes and deals are not the only way to measure success, and really just getting a movie made is the real achievement — and hell, getting it into Sundance is pretty damn sweet.
I have loved what I have seen of Ryan’s work so far. I also love all he has to say about the film. I also love the the film is about something real to us all; in this case the killing of Oscar Grant at by a police officer. If you haven’t checked it out this video already, I recommend you do so now:
If you’d like to read more about this and the original case it is based on, this HuffPost article includes many photos of the Oakland riots that followed after the officer was sentenced only for involuntary manslaughter for two years, minus time served.
Cinema is dead, no one goes to the movies, film is dead, who actually goes to the movies, they don’t make ‘em like they used to, there’s nothing new under the sun—my gosh, don’t you just WRETCH at the thought of these phrases, either in a hundred and forty characters or time-wasting think pieces or overheard on BART or anywhere else under the sun. Here’s the secret—and I’m preaching to the choir here—American independent cinema is going through an amazing renaissance at the moment. Really! It’s just ACCESS to these movies that’s the problem, but I’m getting ahead of myself.It’s easier than ever to make a movie. You, dear reader, could conceivably
By Chris Mason Johnson
I don’t have any statistics on this, but from what I can gather anecdotally, forming a non-profit to make a fictional feature film is a pretty rare thing, but it’s what I’ve done for my new (second) feature, Test, and it’s been a great experience. Mostly great. At first I did have to endure snarky questions from my non-filmmaking friends, along the lines of: “Aren’t you just admitting your film won’t make any money?” Well, no… (more on that later). From my filmmaking friends the response was more of a blank stare, followed by: “I don’t know anyone else who’s done that.”
There are a lot of filmmakers out there who make one feature and then stop. They didn’t break through to that magical “next level,” and there’s no way they’re doing the same thing all over again. But for those of us who are determined to keep making films on a small scale, truly independently — and who actually enjoy it — it makes sense to explore new models in a distribution landscape that’s in the midst of its own creative destruction and reconfiguring.
